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Virden miners gather at this cabin, where women made coffee for the striking laborers. These strikers guarded the entrance to a stockaded compound in an attempt to prevent strikebreakers from entering. Remember Virden
Nyssa S. R. Woods The history of the United Mine Workers and coal mine owners in Illinois has been marked by periods of extreme violence, property damage, and even murder. As such, it is typical of the history of coal mining throughout the United States. One such violent episode was the Virden Massacre of 1898. Early in 1898, the mine operators and the mine workers of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois had met in a joint labor/management conference. Coming out of that conference was an agreement that management enforce an eight-hour work day and pay a mutually agreed upon prevailing wage. Company stores were also to be eliminated. Yet, into the fall of 1898, the Chicago-Virden Coal Company, along with many other firms in the four-state region, felt unduly hampered by this agreement. In vain, they all sought to be exempted. Failing in that effort, management in the multi-state region proceeded to lock the union workers out of the mines. Then management began to import black strikebreakers from Alabama. This provocative action created a strong reaction among the unionists. The Macoupin County Sheriff, P. C. Davenport, went on record as saying, "I have no protection for foreign colored miners who may come into my county." At this time, the arrival of the strikebreakers was only a rumor for Virden. But in other jurisdictions where mine management had already imported black replacement workers, blood had been shed and life lost. Sheriff Davenport had the barest inkling of the trouble to come. At Virden the Chicago-Virden Coal Company, led by manager F. W. Lukens, further reinforced the lockout by surrounding the mine with a stockade. The Virden mine sat just beside the Chicago and Alton Railroad, less than forty miles south of Springfield, Illinois. Heavily armed private detectives had been hired to maintain the security of the mine and to ensure the safety of the black workers scheduled to arrive by rail. Both the company and the county sheriff had asked Governor Tanner to send troops to prevent violence. According to the dispatch sent by the sheriff, there were a thousand armed men, mostly from Macoupin County, in Virden. Governor John Tanner refused to send troops as long as the company's plans to import black workers remained in force. The company had asked the attorney general for permission for the sheriff to deputize Chicago residents to augment the sheriff's forces. This request was also denied. As the train carrying the rumored one hundred black miners and their wives and children pulled through the depot at Virden at 12:40 P.M. on
October 12, 1898, the feared violence began. Gunshots were exchanged between laborers and the armed guards of the train. Several people on both sides were among the casualties. Yet, this was merely the detonator for a far larger explosion that took place when the union members followed the train to the mine stockade. Before the end of the day, many unionists and company men— the exact number is impossible to say since the reports vary drastically—would lay wounded or dead. Six union members—E. D. Welsh, Frank Bilyeu, Albert Smith, Joe Kitterly, Ernest Keutner, and A. H. Breneman—were dead at the end of the day. At least five company guards were killed. More men on both sides died from injuries within days. Herbert Kyger, the engineer of the train, who was also shot in the encounter, refused to allow the blacks to get off the train. Instead, he took his passengers to St. Louis. Enraged, the union men stormed the company store and attacked the proprietor, J. F. Eyster, beating him, shooting him, and leaving him for dead. In fact, the sheriff's men removed Eyster from the store, and laid him on the grass outside, declaring him to be dead. To everyone's surprise, a few moments later, Eyster moved. Then, to the shock of the sheriff's deputies, the unionists attacked Eyster afresh. Governor Tanner ordered the National Guard to Virden to prevent the offloading of a second train-load of strikebreakers. It was the first time in American history that any governor had ordered troops to the support of labor. It was an election year, and former Governor Altgeld led the Democrats in denouncing Governor Tanner. However, Tanner was reelected. The union swore out a warrant against mine manager Lukens, charging him with murder and conspiracy to murder. The state's attorney for Macoupin County held that the warrant was invalid and refused to act on the charges pending a verdict of the coroner's jury. However, that did not prevent Lukens from receiving death threats. The dead union members were denied burial in the established cemeteries. Hence, the union bought an acre of land in Mount Olive, Illinois, where they created a union miner's cemetery. The Chicago-Virden Coal Company did not return the strikebreakers to Alabama. Instead, the blacks were left in St. Louis without money, without shelter, and without jobs. They were forced to write home to ask that collections be taken up to furnish them with tickets home. But the incident at Virden did prevent the companies from recruiting other black strikebreakers. Yet, for all of this, the lockout lasted just about six months. Management eventually conceded. The union workers were rehired under the terms of their agreement. Some of the supervisors were fired. "Remember Virden" became a union rallying cry. Perhaps nothing can clarify the nature of this incident more than a quote from Clarence Darrow, famous lawyer: "Industrial contests take on all the attitudes and psychology of war, and both parties do many things that they should never dream of doing in times of peace. Whatever may be said, the fact is that all strikes and all resistance to strikes take on the psychology of warfare, and all parties in interest must be judged from that standpoint."— [From: Thomas T. Brooks, Toil and Trouble, "Chronology of Illinois Labor History," webpage; Daily Illinois Courier, Jacksonville, Illinois, Jan. 18, Oct. 3, 4, 13, 15, 21, 24, 25, 30, and Nov. 2, 1898; John H. Reiser, "The Union Miners Cemetery at Mt. Olive, Illinois," Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, (1969); Arthur E. Suffern, Conciliation and Arbitration in the Coal Industry of America.] Miners gather at the railroad tracks, ready to meet the trainload of strikebreakers scheduled to arrive by rail.
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